England captain Ben Stokes says he is ready to accept criticism that England’s performance in the opening Test was rubbish, but believes it would be too much to call his team arrogant. England have faced severe criticism after their two-day defeat to Australia in Perth. Despite being in a strong position on the second day and leading by 105 runs with nine wickets remaining, they faltered dramatically, losing nine wickets for 99 runs due to poor shot selection. After this, Travis Head led the host team to victory by eight wickets.
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Former players and experts have criticized England’s attitude during and after the match. Questions are being raised over England’s preparations, such as a low-intensity three-day practice match against the Lions and a two-day pink-ball match ahead of the day-night Test in Brisbane. Additionally, photographs of the players playing golf were also taken by the paparazzi, and the story was planted that the team was completely unprepared for the most anticipated Ashes tour in recent years.
Speaking in England’s first official media interaction since the defeat in Perth, Stokes clarified the situation. Ahead of an extra training session at Allan Border Field on Saturday, the first of five before the next Test, the England captain acknowledged criticism is part of the job, but insisted it was not all that fair. He said look, you can call us rubbish, call us whatever you want.
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He said that our Test match was not as we wanted. We were brilliant in parts of that match… but I think that might be a bit much to be arrogant about. He further said that but it is okay. We will accept both good and bad. I’d prefer words like ‘nonsense’, but I’m not so sure about ‘arrogant’. He also justified the decision not to send many first-team players for the Prime Minister’s XI matches. Only Jacob Bethell, Josh Tongue and Matthew Potts are playing at Manuka Oval, while the rest of the Ashes squad has been in Brisbane since Wednesday.